Biscoff Granola

Hello! Okay, so I have a confession to make, I am absolutely 100% addicted to Lotus Biscoff spread, smooth AND crunchy, i'm not fussy. I keep dreaming of ways that I can incorporate it into every bake (every meal!!) I make. So ,at the weekend I made a yummy Biscoff Cheesecake for dessert on Sunday but that left me with half a jar left, hmmm what to do with that? Yes, I could just have eaten it with a spoon, as I have done oh so many times before but then I had a lightbulb moment, why not make GRANOLA with it, then I could have it for breakfast too. So, in short if you love Biscoff as much as me, keep reading...

Ingredients

4 tablespoons of Biscoff/lotus spread (smooth or crunchy)

4 tablespoons of butter

5 Biscoff/lotus biscuits, bashed into crumbs

2 tablespoons of Demerera Sugar

a pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

250g of oats

Method

1. Melt butter and Biscoff spread on a low heat.
2. Mix oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.
3. Pour in the Biscoff/butter mix and mix until combined.
4. Spread granola mix unto a baking tray lined with baking paper.
5. Pop in the oven at 180 degrees for 20mins, mixing and turning the granola over half way through.
6. Leave to cool then mix through the Biscoff crumbs.
7. Enjoy however you like.

There you go, you can thank me later!! I know it's not the healthiest thing in the world but life's about balance and sometimes you just need to treat yourself and feed your Biscoff addiction. You could also add whatever you like to the recipe, some nuts would be delicious or dried fruit, but I'm a purist and just like the Biscoff flavour, I also like the crunch of the crumbled Biscoff biscuits, okay I will go, my mouth is watering now. Thank you so much for reading, i'm away to dream up some more Biscoff recipes,

Rachael xx.

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oat Energy Balls

HELLO! So, it's been a while since I last visited my little corner of the internet. Nothing much has happened I just was having a little break from blogging. In my break from the Tea Cozy Kitchen I have been on holiday to Croatia, which was so beautiful and the food and drink was amazing. I celebrated my 27th birthday (shock! horror!) with a very tasty triple layer biscoff and caramel cake (pics to follow!), we also celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary and our wee tiny pup turned 6 months old! Time just keeps marching on!

Anyway, today i'm sharing a very simple, tasty and a little healthy recipe for you. Chocolate, peanut butter and oat energy balls are a new discovery for me but a great one at that! I love one or two mid-afternoon with a big cuppa coffee to beat those 3pm energy slumps. So here goes...

 

Ingredients

makes 16 (two-bite) energy balls

150g oats,

50g raisins,

3tbsp smooth or crunchy peanut butter,

1.5tbsp honey,

0.5 tsp vanilla extract,

100g white chocolate,

90g dark chocolate,

cocoa nibs and ground almonds to decorate.

Method

• Use a food processor to blend the oats, raisins, peanut butter, honey and vanilla together until you get a paste that can be easily rolled into balls.
• Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and roll the mixture into 16 evenly sized balls setting each one on the tray.
• Put the tray of balls in the fridge to set for 15mins.
• Melt the chocolates and roll each ball in the chocolate until it is evenly covered and setting each ball back on the tray with a sprinkle of your desired topping, I used cocoa nibs and ground almonds.
• Pop the tray back in the fridge for the chocolate to set for another 15mins then chow down!

These can be kept in the fridge for a few days. This is a great base recipe as you could easily change the nut butter, swap the raisins for dates, add chopped nuts or change the toppings. I really enjoyed this recipe so I would really love it if you let me know how it goes for you, thanks so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

Rainbow Piñata Cake

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Tea Cozy Kitchen. So, I mentioned in my last post that I was doing a bit of baking at the weekend for a first birthday party. I thought I would share with you the cake that I baked and also the process which was involved in making this cake.

For this first birthday party I made a Rainbow Piñata Cake. I mean what could be better for a kids party than a brightly coloured cake that explodes smarties when you cut into it!  For the cake sponge I just used a very simple all in one Victoria sponge method with a little added vanilla and made four layers with it. I used Mary Berry's Victoria sponge recipe as you really just cant go wrong with a recipe by her. I mean Mary Berry knows her cakes. To get the colour on the inside I used some gel food colouring. I wanted the colour to be vibrant so I used quite a lot (maybe could have done with a wee bit less, the colour was almost fluorescent).

As you can see the outside of the cake was decorated very simply with a light and fluffy vanilla buttercream and topped with some fresh berries. I wanted the outside to not give any hints on what was hiding on the inside. I did two layers of the buttercream to try and get an opaque finish! It was pretty hard to achieve this as I have made so many semi-naked cakes recently.

Between the cake layers was a thick layer of buttercream but also a good bit of strawberry jam. I always think that vanilla and strawberry jam screams kids birthday cake. To get the smarties in the centre I used a cookie cutter to cut a circle in the centre of the first three layers. When they were stacked and assembled with buttercream there was a column down the middle that I was able to fill with smarties. The top layer had no hole and was set on top to stop the smarties falling out.

 And that's how I made this Rainbow Piñata Cake, I think it's possibly one of the most fun cakes I have ever made and it went down a treat with the kids and adults alike. What's your favourite thing that you have baked? I would love to know! Thanks so much for reading,

Rachael xx.